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'Silver Lining' is a column from freelancer Taylor Cocke dedicated to highlighting moments of real potential in less than perfect games. This week he examines Saber Interactive's Inversion. The following may contain story spoilers.
Inversion's opening sequence is rather affecting. Protagonist Davis Russel is tied to a pole as a monstrous Lutadore priest babbles on in a difficult to understand tone, preparing to sacrifice the former police officer. In his ostensibly final moments, he begins to remember how he got into the spot he's in. He's lost his family, his city, and soon, his life. It feels like a man reading his own suicide note - he's given up hope and is ready to die.

It certainly sets a tone for the rest of the game, which is mostly told as a flashback. Humanity has lost the war against the invading aliens. The people of Vanguard City have been broken down by the relentless invasion of the monstrous Lutadores. And, if the opening sequence establishes anything, it was a war that they were destined to lose. Davis is on a game-long search for his daughter, and the possibility of saving her seems to be the only thing keeping him going.

Saber Interactive’s Inversion came out on our console cousins at the beginning of June. It’s now with us on PC, with a decent port. But is it a decent game? I took on the forces of gravity to find out, and here’s Wot I Think.

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Inversion™ is Now Available on Steam!

Don't just defy gravity. Command it.

Take on the role of a young father and husband, Davis Russell, who finds himself thrust into war when his peaceful city is invaded by an unknown enemy. With his daughter missing and conventional weapons and tactics all but useless, this ordinary cop and his partner Leo Delgado will rise up to heed the call of duty, master the fundamental forces of gravity and save the world.

As a kid, there were only two things I truly loved: playing with a motley assembly of action figures, and reading Ender's Game. Inversion, somewhat implausibly, manages to combine Past Me's favorite pastimes. Its topsy-turvy, gravity-switching third-person shooting hearkens back to the portion of Ender's Game most ripe for a game spin-off: the Battle Room. In Inversion's best moments, the player and enemies alike float and dodge through the air, without a care in the world until a hail of bullets interrupts their physics-defying backstroke.

The rest of Inversion, though, feels like it was slapped together with all the focus of a child weaving nonsensical yarns in a sandbox. Interesting abilities get the cold shoulder in favor of an obnoxiously intrusive plot that unfolds without the slightest shred of adherence to logic or reason. Modern-day cops take on hulking, Mad-Max-wannabe tribal men because ... hell if I know.

It seems like the kind of story that would have emerged if Child Me ran out of police-themed figures and decided to break out WWE wrestlers to even the odds. And so, instead of taking its gravity mechanics to new heights, Inversion largely opts to make pew-pew explosion sounds with its mouth - resulting in a haphazard, hackneyed Gears of War clone that feels like it's made of pathetic, flimsy plastic.

Davis and Other Guy are buddy cops who team up to help each other up ledges and fight locust...adores.

There are so many ways to manipulate gravity to your advantage in Inversion.

The baddies in Inversion may be big -- but their dumb too.

Is breaking the law of gravity all it's cracked up to be in Inversion?

Inversion is a shooter with a twist. But is its gravity-warping gameplay enough to make it standout from the crowd of cover-based shooters?

Inversion is a gravity bending, environment altering, third-person shooter.

A a plethora of fast-paced multiplayer modes get detailed for Inversion.

Namco Bandai's Inversion has a new trailer that details the game's hourglass, gravity slaughter, and other multiplayer modes. Inversion is set to launch next week in North America, and was recently delayed to July in Europe.

The European launch of Inversion has been delayed to sometime in July, reports Eurogamer. The reason for the delay was not disclosed. When reached for comment, a Namco Bandai representative informed Joystiq that the title is still slated for a June 5 launch in North America. Whatever the reason, it looks like Europe, at least, will have to wait just a bit longer to shoot baddies while walking on the ceiling.

This marks the second delay for Inversion, which saw its original February release date pushed back earlier this year.

Based on the opening chapters of Saber Interactive's topsy-turvy third-person shooter, the true stars of Inversion appear to be the humble force of gravity and computational power of the Havok Physics engine...

Gunning gravity-shifter Inversion has shifted its official release window to "early 2012." Publisher Namco Bandai informed us of the change after we asked it about retailers changing the launch date to March 27.

"The launch of Inversion has been moved to early 2012, and more details will follow in an upcoming announcement," a Namco Bandai spokesperson told Joystiq. "This additional development time will allow the team to polish several key aspects of the game ensuring Inversion is of the highest quality."

For those who had their hearts set on a game for Inversion's original release date of February 7, there's always the "enemy-pounding funfest" of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Inversion has had an official launch date of February 7, 2012, for over a year now, but retail listings are shifting to note otherwise. Both GameFly, which lists launch info based on publisher data, and GameStop now present a release date of March 27.

Originally announced back in 2009, Inversion was supposed to hit shelves sometime in 2010, back when Namco was still trying out new IP. We've contacted Namco Bandai for official confirmation of the delay.

Inception called and it totally wants its BWAAAAAHM back.

#inversion I'm the kind of guy who'll always give games that muck with the core precepts of spacetime at least a gander. Rewinding and freezing time, opening up wormholes and otherwise bending the forces of the universe spices up otherwise ordinary gameplay. That's the thinking behind Namco Bandai's upcoming shooter Inversion, which lets you reverse gravity to flip enemies out of cover and create absurd grenade throws. Until then, let's hope all that gravity tomfoolery doesn't have the same effects as it does in Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!, the novel by late literary great Kurt Vonnegut: More »

Sometimes an otherwise-uninteresting looking game has a few tricks up its sleeve. Just about all of Inversion smacks of mediocrity -- its generic storyline (aliens invade Earth!), derivative gameplay (maybe you've played Gears of War?) and unoriginal multiplayer modes (two different kinds of deathmatch!) are all a big turn-off at first glance. But Inversion has one thing going for it: the Gravlink.

It's a device that enables the core mechanic of the game, gravity manipulation. By firing off a red or blue beam, you can increase or decrease the gravity of an area or object. It's one-time use, however you can pick up little energy boosters around the environment that allow you to use it more than once. When I became comfortable with the Gravlink, I found myself having some fun with Inversion.

Inversion's main mechanic is the ability to manipulate pockets of gravity. We've touched on Inversion's story, but my latest look focuses on multiplayer. Utilizing its gravity mechanic, Inversion's multiplayer tries to shake up standard game types...

Inversion's grav link allows you to inflict low gravity around enemies, lifting those meatsacks for easy targeting, and then high gravity to smush 'em with environmental objects. But the real stomach drop happens with the perspective-altering "vector shifts." Wait at least 30 minutes after eating before play.

#inversion All right class, what is the first rule of shooters? Stay behind those low walls? Namco Bandai explains why that strategy may not work anymore. More »

My buddy. My buddy. Wherever I go, he goes. I'll teach him to flip gravity like I know. My buddy and me like to climb up a tree. My buddy and me, we're the best friends we could be. My buddy and meee!

The gimmick in Saber Interactive's Inversion -- combat across multiple planes -- isn't quite enough to carry the lackluster shooting. Like Dark Void, Fracture, and Timeshift before it, Inversion relies heavily on its unique twist to set it apart from other shooters, while leaving the central mechanic unpolished.

As the perspective flipped repeatedly throughout the demo, I was distracted how similar the game's set of flimsy guns felt. Sure, baddies stick to walls in completely separate gravity planes (turning firefights into more than just what's directly in front of you), but shouldn't shooting at them be more fun?

#watchthis Y, yes, Namco's February 2012 game Inversion will let you raise and lower the gravity of enemies and objects, letting you toss them and crush them. Plus the game includes zero-gravity combat and neat sequences that have enemies (or you!) running around on the walls and ceilings, as if up was down or right was down, etc. More »

Saber Interactive uses big ideas to affect familiar genres. 2007's TimeShift cleverly used control of time to reimagine tactical FPS combat. Saber's new title, Inversion, looks like an appropriate follow-up. It melds a big idea to a familiar genre in a way that will force players to think about spac...

Inversion turns third-person shooting upside down... literally.

Catch some gameplay of Inversion straight from the floor of E3 2011!